Hi.
I erroneously posted this question in another forum so posting again, hopefully in the right forum now.
My iPhone has suddenly gotten some malware in it and whenever I open a site it almost always redirects me to spam / junk sites.
My phone is not jail-broken.
Can I detect or get rid of this malware?
Many thanks.
iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8.2
Try resetting Safari. Close Safari completely from the app switcher window by double clicking the Home button and swiping up the Safari preview pane until it disappears from the screen. You may have to look for the Safari pane by scrawling to the left. Then go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data. Then do a forced restart. Hold down the Home and Wake/Sleep buttons at the same time for about 15-20 seconds until the Apple logo appears.
Try resetting Safari. Close Safari completely from the app switcher window by double clicking the Home button and swiping up the Safari preview pane until it disappears from the screen. You may have to look for the Safari pane by scrawling to the left. Then go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data. Then do a forced restart. Hold down the Home and Wake/Sleep buttons at the same time for about 15-20 seconds until the Apple logo appears.
Restore your iPhone to factory settings > Use iTunes on your Mac or PC to restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings
That will eliminate the malware re directs.
iPhones cannot catch viruses unless they are jailbroken and yours is not. Malware redirects are usually caused by a malicious cookie in your browser's cache and if you use Safari, the suggestion I posted before should get rid of it. If you use Chrome or another browser try deleting its history and data or deleting the browser and reinstalling it. Restoring your phone to factory settings should also eliminate the cookies but it will wipe your phone clean as well. If you restore from backup you are likely to bring the malware back. I again suggest resetting Safari (or other browsers) first. Little to lose and it is likely to take care of the issue.
Hi.
Thank you to you both for the helpful tips.
I have deleted the browser history (with everything else) completely many times and then restarted the phone. But the problem is still there.
The problem is not only with Safari but with all of the phone browsers including Chrome and Firefox. The redirects happen everywhere and and with most of the sites.
I have a feeling that it definitely is a malware.
I could go for a factory reset but I have hundreds of contacts and lots of whats-app messages which I don't want to tamper with or lose. If I can import them flawlessly (with totally zero error) then I can try the factory reset also.
If you have any other options please do let me know.
Regards.
Try deleting all the browsers you have other than Safari which cannot be deleted. Then please repeat the Safari instructions I previously suggested. Please do not skip any steps. Little to lose but time.
If that does not work you can do a restore as per the instructions below. However, if you restore the backup the malware/cookies are very likely to be restored as well. You would have to restore as New unless you have a backup from before the issue started, i.e. a clean backup prior to the malware.
If you restore as new your contacts should be safe as long as you have Settings > iCloud > Contacts to ON. The WhatsApp messages are not stored in their servers and are part of the backup which is likely corrupted. They would be lost with a restore as new.
Thanks! You really saved me! Awesome post!
My pleasure.
Malware help needed please.
